How to Restore iPhone Contacts

How do I only restore contacts from an iPhone backup?

I reset my iPhone 4 and all I want put back on my phone from the old backup is the contacts. Is there any way to restore only the contacts? Please give step-by-step instructions for a Mac. Thank you.

Yes, there are two ways. If you use iTunes to manage your iPhone, you must have noticed that iTunes always makes backup for your iPhone when you sync it, and the backup includes your contacts, SMS, calendar, notes, photos, videos and more. You could restore iPhone contacts from it by extracing the backup. The other way is recovering contacts directly from your iPhone if your previous contacts are not overwritten. To reach it, you need to get an iPhone contacts restoring tool: Wondershare Dr.Fone (Mac) or Wondershare Dr.Fone (for Windows users).

Both of the software are especially for users who want to free the contents from iTunes backup file and restore to iPhone. It turns the backup file into recoverable contacts, SMS, calendar, call history, notes, photos and videos separately, so that you can restore any of them selectively. More, no matter you are using iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or the other previous version, you can use the program all the same. In addition, the two versions of Wondershare Dr.Fone also allow you to directly scan and recover contacts from iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

This Dr.Fone guide is based in Mac version. Windows users can now learn Wondershare Dr.Fone (for Windows) user guide here: Wondershare Dr.Fone (for Windows) Guide.

Download this free trial version below and install it on your Mac.

 

Steps to restore contacts on iPhone 

Step 1: Scan the backup file

You don't need to connect and sync your iPhone with iTunes before you run the program. Run it and choose the backup of your iPhone on which you are going to restore contacts.

To restore iPhone contacts, please select your device type and recovery mode first. Here we try with "Recover from iTunes Backup File" mode.

f you only have one Apple device connected and synced with iTunes before, there would be only one device backup. Then go to "Start Scan", and move on.

Step 2: Choose to restore iPhone contacts

When the scanning finishes, all the content in the previous backup file will be separated out, and you can preview all of the one by one.

To restore contacts from iPhone, check the box in front of the "Contacts", and hit on the "Recover" to save it on your Mac.

Step 3: Transfer contacts to iPhone

Now the contact exists on your Mac in a .vcf file. You only need to import it into the Apple or Windows Address Mail, and then transfer it to your iPhone through iTunes. Then everything is done here.

Video tutorial of restoring iPhone contacts